The Lake County, Illinois Sheriff's Office, Reported on Facebook about a carjacking and child abduction incident that took place last week.
In particular, he stated that a Volkswagen Atlas with integrated technology tracking device was stolen by a woman and when police tried to ask VW to track the vehicle, it refused until payment was received.
According with the Chicago Sun Times, the vehicle had a built-in mode called Car-Net which allows vehicle owners to track their cars. As the stolen vehicle was outside the trial period for the feature, police attempted to call the manufacturer to activate it. At this point, the person on the other end of her lines said it would cost $150 to activate the feature.
So the police had to have a credit card number and call the agent to get Car-Net working. However, by that time, the child had been rescued and the vehicle had been located, so the Car-Net data was useless.
Volkswagen said its procedures were not followed by the call operator and is now trying to address the situation with the parties involved.
At the time of the theft, the woman was taking one of her children inside the house, but when she went to find the other one, one of the thieves hit her, knocked her to the ground, and by the time the car was up, it was gone with the child.
Fortunately, the abducted child was unharmed and the woman was hospitalized with serious injuries. Her condition is currently stable.
